Zaton Holiday Camp poses a bit of a conundrum. It may be huge, with thousands of residents, in fact I think it might be Germany’s 15thbiggest city by population, but its size has some unexpected benefits. Our pitch, bizarrely, is probably the quietest we have had this trip. We are so far away from the discos, kids clubs and glamorous Granny competitions that the sound does not travel to our little corner set amongst the pine trees.
We did have a nasty shock when we went to the Pizzeria last night. Sarah and I had only been sitting down for 10 minutes when, on small stage next to the restaurant, a man set up was looked suspiciously like a sound system. Sure enough music started to be played, but despite not understanding the lyrics, we soon discerned that it was music for children. Yes, we were sitting next to what was going to be the camp’s kids’ disco! It actually turned out to be rather fun, taking us both back to the days when our children were small enough to participate in such things. One little girl in particular made us smile: apart from the DJ she was the only person on stage and she stood still through several songs with her arms crossed, while all the other children cut their moves on the floor below. Suddenly a German song was played and she went crazy, dancing and making all sorts of strange movements with her arms. Evidently she had felt left out because this week is half term in England and so most of the kids and therefore most of the songs were English. Since at least 90% of the campers are German she probably had expected a more familiar play list.
Sarah took over an hour walking the dogs this morning and she never left the campsite. I was a little unfair in yesterday’s post when I accused the campsite of not telling the truth when they say the campsite is only 1 kilometre from the nearby town of Nin. Today I found that there is another exit gate on the campsite, for pedestrians and cyclists only, which is only 1.1km from Nin. The rub is that this gate is over 1.7 kilometres from Basil. Have I told you how big this campsite is?!!
So this afternoon we all hiked to the equestrian centre and Sarah booked herself one hour of horse riding for 9 am tomorrow. About a quarter of the site is forest with paths cut through it, so I’m not sure she will need to leave the site.
I then carried on to explore Nin. Since I had chosen the campsite partly because Nin was within easy reach I felt duty bound.
Nin claims to be Croatia’s oldest town. I’m not sure that it can really establish this assertion but it is probably based upon the fact that it was the centre of Croatia’s first recognised Christian Diocese and therefore has the country’s oldest Cathedral and, perhaps coincidentally, the oldest church still standing.
Nin is certainly very old. It has been known as a source of salt, from the salt pans that sit to one side of the Nin, for over 2,000 years. It is essentially a small island with salt pans on one side and water surrounding the rest of the circumference.
It is a mildly diverting place to walk around. It really only has one main street and this contains St. Anselm’s Cathedral which is so plain that any innocent passer by could mistake it for a Lutheran chapel. Set to one side the Cathedral does have a pretty 13thcentury Romanesque bell tower.
The church of the Holy Cross, which dates from the 9thCentury and is supposed to be Croatia’s oldest, is, if possible, even plainer. A tiny whitewashed church built in the Orthodox style.
The barest remains of a Roman Temple of Jupiter and the floorplan of a Roman house with the mosaics covered over for preservation completes the list of attractions in Nin.
In all honesty Nin was not one of my highlights of the trip. If you happen to be nearby its worth half an hour or so of your time, but don’t make a diversion specially.
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in the blog before, but whenever Sarah is idle, which is not often, she occupies her time crocheting. This trip she has been making various breeds of dog. Today she finished her fourth of the trip, a Schnauzer. So we now have, apart from our real dogs, travelling withus a Dachshund, Schnauzer, Springer Spaniel and a replica of Melek, who else.
